Be a cardio bunny and do nothing but mindlessly trudge on the treadmill in a feeble attempt to lose “weight.” OR. Bulk up like Meathead McGee and eat McDonalds while playing around on the weight machines in a feeble attempt to gain muscle. Those are your two choices, right? As a skinny-fat sufferer, each of [...]
Be a cardio bunny and do nothing but mindlessly trudge on the treadmill in a feeble attempt to lose “weight.” OR. Bulk up like Meathead McGee and eat McDonalds while playing around on the weight machines in a feeble attempt to gain muscle.
Those are your two choices, right?
As a skinny-fat sufferer, each of these paths will suck, so let’s suit up with something that won’t suck. And to do that, let’s back it up to stimulation. (I suggest reading some of the previous posts on signaling [here, here, here] to get a feel for where we are.)
The goal right now: stimulate your way to the solid base. Just in case you don’t know what exactly that means, let’s start there.
Pre-solid base recap
We now know that fat cells complicate any physical transformation. Got ‘em? Well, they’re probably going to be sticking around for a while because by some twisted act of cruelty, the mad creator of humanity cared more about keeping us alive than having a visible set of six pack abs. (Or it could be that those efficient at storing energy were more adaptive; they survived, others didn’t.)
The madness!
Even when you wash the fat from the fat cell, the cell is still there—likely ready to refill, too. Few things happen fast with the body. (Well, save for injuries. And my hat tips to Coach Stevo for that quip.) It seems trite, but the best way (it seems) to convince the body to vanquish the actual cells is to:
- Get rid of the fat inside of the cell
- Keep it gone for a long time
Essentially, prove the body that they are no longer needed. Now, I’ll plug my own insanity here because I think I have a haphazardly stumbled across a way to get this point across to the body (and build muscle in the process to boot) a little faster than waiting around for the ol’ hands on a grandfather clock to do their ticking and tocking, but I’ll save that for later as I’m already getting ahead of myself and making this essay longer than it probably needs to be. (I tend to do this a lot.)
What this all says is that as long as fat cells are alive and kicking, muscle pursuits are tough cookies because nutrients and energy that could be used to rebuild and repair muscle tissue can sway to the fat side. (And here’s where skinny-fat guys clench their first, raise their chin to the sky, and curse the true skinny guys, as they don’t have this competition.)
This is the conundrum of skinny-fat syndrome:
- Do I bulk and gain a bunch of fat while trying to build muscle?
- Do I cut and seemingly lose a bunch of muscle while trying to lose fat?
The answer is (2), but most people attack this wrong—you don’t need to wither into the wind. I wrote about this twice before, but here’s a quick recap.
Should you bulk or cut?
First, read these:
Now, there’s a good chance that if you bulk first, you’re going to put on more fat than muscle. This is another one those things I could be wrong about, but I think I’m right about. I just don’t think many people skinny-fat have the right grasp on supply to make decent muscle progress without also tacking on the lard. It also doesn’t help that most skinny-fat dudes that try to build muscle end up using sub-par methods (what’s in a lot of muscle building magazines, huge body part split routines, mainstream garbage). In other words, they don’t stimulate the enough to warrant a worthwhile rebuild either.
This is alright though. We’ve all been in this situation, it’s apart of the digging process. The work.
Besides, even if things did go well, you have yet to prove to yourself that you can lose fat. Not good, especially since skinny-fat sufferers are often mentally handicapped by their body fat. (Been there, done that.) So you end up walking this line of muscle retention and fat loss, something that will probably end up in you wasting away your muscle tissue in an attempt to lean down.
I find it much better to lose the fat first. Be in the moment as that happens, and then you understand how to lose fat for the rest of your days. From there, even if you go through any sub-par muscle extravaganza, you can always return to your starting position. (And let’s not forget: the quicker we get rid of the fat, the quicker we start convincing the body that the cells aren’t needed.)
And the kicker here is that this “starting position” isn’t going to be an emaciated sad and pathetic point . . . as long as you stimulate correctly to get there.
The solid base
The solid base is the goal, and I define it by body fat. With the way most males (and skinny-fat guys) hold their body fat, it’s best seen through the eyes of the abs. If you have a four-six pack in solid overhead lighting (and flexing), you’re about where you need to be. Dropping lower looks nice and all, but will likely be unsustainable long term unless you drop that low and stay there for a long long time (but chances are you won’t be building that much muscle for said long long time) — this would be recreating your body fat set point. I think.
(The sad reality of a lot of photo shoots and whatnot where the absurdly low body fat and cut look is showcased: most people prep for them with special techniques, and it’s not a “look” they have 24/7. This is something more saved for a specific essay on media manipulations though.)
Since the solid base is defined by body fat and I consider the solid base the first step, here enters the perils of the thermogenic calorie game and the way modern “fitness” has taught us to see the body.
The goal of fat loss naturally means turning into a cardio bunny, doing cardio, and then finishing off with more cardio—muscle stuff can wait for when the fat is gone.
Wrong.
Starting the shape-shifting
Although getting to the solid base means losing fat, it represents the seeds of a physiological shift. You might not be eating for huge muscle gains during the solid base quest, but you have to start stimulating the body in a way that gets it thinking about your muscles. Not only will this help with fat loss, but it will put you in a much better muscle building spot down the line. You need to start rewiring the flinch now, not later.
What changes the insides? The flinch?
A sweet spot of “high intensity muscle contractions.” Yes, even for fat loss. It’s in quotes because it’s a bucket of different things and not a prescription.
- Barbell training
- Dumbbell training
- Bodyweight training
- Sprinting
And other tools that replicate the above. Each of these things have upsides and downsides, but they are the things that get the body thinking about something else to look into insofar as storing and using excess energy (instead of just dumping it to the evermore important fat cells, as fat makes up your energy for most of the day). They might not readily use fat as the primary source of fuel, but they do too many other good things to leave off the table.
You can train a bunch of ways and stress different systems. Some types of training hit more neural stress, others more respiratory (mitochondrial) stress. But you won’t do meaningful work to your physique until you start stressing it above its current muscular capacity — breaking it down so that it builds back up. (Also note that this isn’t something that lives in a vacuum — neural stress can help boost potential for muscle stress; none of these things are isolated, which is why I’m simplifying to “high intensity” work).
Strength training for fat loss?
There’s no better time to start doing this than now. It’s not after fat loss, it’s a part of fat loss. To this, you might be asking: well then what’s the deal with the fat? How do I take care of that?
First, know that anything in the realm of stimulating for fat loss shouldn’t take away from the primary bucket of high intensity muscle work and strength training. This is why, in my opinion, most fat loss specific work should be of a lower intensity at first.
This brings about two buckets:
- (a) high intensity muscle contractions for physiological recreation
- (b) “extra” work to use up excess energy that doesn’t interfere with (a)
In this realm, managing supply helps a bunch too. It’s impossible to lose fat when you’re grossly pounding down energy and nutrients. It’s probably a good idea to shift supply to cater to more muscle repair with a higher protein diet for now. (There’s more with supply, but I think that’s enough to get started.)
The skinny-fat stimulation caveat
Stimulating to the solid base is all about the high intensity work. Keep in mind I’m not using “intensity” here in the traditional sense, but rather to distinguish it from other forms of exercise that are more about calories or huffing and puffing and sustaining moderate muscle contractions for hours upon end. Perhaps it’s best to take “intensity” to mean: a stressor greater than your body is capable of handing, but also within reason, and for the long haul, the good stuff will stress the muscular component of movement (as there are a host of other components) enough to produce some kind of adaptation.
You can run with this and hop on a lot of programs. There are boatloads out there. But I also think, with this entire muscle component philosophy, you should dig one layer of tissue deeper. Since this is going to be breaking you down and rebuilding, what they does that say about the specific exercises on the table?
In other words, I’m built like this, but I want to be built like that. If you have a that in mind, I think it’s an important reality to play to. That’s why I think it’s important to stimulate with the good movements that either currently emphasize or lead into better lifts (walk before you run) down the line for developing a certain kind of look that opposes most skinny-fat builds.
For this, I have two exercises that I consider to be better than the rest, and then six atop them worthy of mention — all told, I once called them 8.4.X — the eight essential exercises for the “X” physique.
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